Next Idea: Knitting with Wire

By Ann Shayne 8/25/03

Dear Kay,
While you’re out there eating hot dogs and having tender summery moments with your darlings, I have been sitting in the hook-up line at Mr. Seven’s school waiting to pick him up. On any other day this would be a happy little half hour for me, clicking away at some easy little project while watching for the fella to show up. But today, the first day of school, I sat steamily futzing with Birch. I have never had such a time with knitting, but then, I’ve never knitted lace.
After the previously documented two rows of Birch (See Aug. 23), I started again, figuring that whatever made me lose seven stitches in one row could be remedied by a fresh start. It’s only 299 stitches to cast on . . . Now I’m on Row Eight of Try Numero Two, and I can see, like gazing at Loch Ness, that something is definitely wierd and monstrous in there. One row is, like, two stitches off, so my cute little birch leaves look not so cute. I am so obsessed at this point that I am planning to start Try Numero Three, confident now that Kidsilk Haze is not going to get the best of ME, and I shall do Emma and Thomas the Knitalong Dad proud. As you know, I am not an obsessive type. But this has me irritated like a mess of chigger bites.
As a balm I stitched up Splash and have one collar to do for Beth. I even went to my LYS and bought up a bunch of the very exact same Patons Grace with which you made a cute little baby something. Turquoise/lime/white. Half OFF. Fresh as paint–I see why you like it. Wouldn’t have bought it if you hadn’t been loving it so much. I’m going to make a baby thang for my friend Cary who’s expecting her newest in October. What pattern did you use?
While I worried over Birch, I wondered: What could be more difficult to knit with than hairy mohair? Wire? That got me thinking about that Rowan with the picture of the giant knitted Elizabethan collar. Don’t know what they used, but it looks like wire to me. Knitting with wire might be kind of great. Would you mind going down to the Wire District in Manhattan to suss out the options?
Love, Ann

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i need to pipe in here about patons grace! kay needs to give me props for finding it!! yes, while she may mock me for going to p & s, but i found that great yarn there was the one who turned her onto it! i just bought some more for baby sweaters…tangelo and seabreaze. it knits up like a dream

***Birch tip ***
Knit 2 rows in plain st.st. [or g st if doing that version].This makes the first pattern row loads easier.
Also count to yourself as you go ,until you can ‘read’ the pattern & see what goes next.
Also ,stay calm ! It’s only knitting :0]

Ann,
Try numero three? Needles down to applaud. I know my limitations, and there is nothing I like more than watching others braver than I go forth and step off that cliff named Birch! I wish I was as patient. You go girl!

thanks ann–i just needed to tweak kay, for she teases me so about my obsession with p&s. let me know if you want me to get you more of that yarn.
re: birch. my hat is off to you. i have three skeins of it for elfin and i am v. tempted to try birch with it. startitis abounds.
xo
e